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The Meaning of Blessed
Ps 115:11-15 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their
shield. 12 The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of
Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; 13 he will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the small and the great. 14 May the Lord give you increase, you and your
children! 15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth! ESV
James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks
intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and
at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the
law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he
will be blessed in his doing. ESV
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We are humans and thus we look out for ourselves and thus we make decisions based
upon how we perceive that it profits us. “What's in it for me?” is the common mental
thought when we hear a pitch or when presented with something demanding response.
“What do I get?” is often the single most reason for our actions. We naturally act in ways
that we think help us. Before a kid can spell the words or even speak them, “Me, myself,
and I” are engrained in their every decision.
As such, we need a fairly constant reminder of the spiritual benefits of living for the
Lord. If obedience to God's commandments are to be sustained then we need to inundate
ourselves with continual reminders of the worth of such things. That is why coming to
church is so important and why preaching and reading the Word of God everyday is so
important. For you have messages – false messages – coming at you continually
presenting false ideals of what is important. The party scene on the billboard presents
you a pretty picture of what their product produces but it is a false image and not at all
like they say. And yet people repeatedly partake of such things because of the continual
advertising that they receive. Those who are attached to secular media 24/7 even with a
Godly filter applied will have a difficult time living for God because they are filling their
brain continually with a reminder of the world's ways. Without prayer, reading and
meditation on God's Word, and faithful church attendance you cannot help but be
overcome by the world's agenda.
Put in simple terms is this: if you have almost nonstop messages put into your brain of
the importance and benefit of the world's way of doing things, then you will naturally
take a slanted and lacking view of the things of God. Therefore a preacher of the Gospel
and a pastor has to spend quite a bit of time reminding people of the great benefits of
serving God. That is the purpose of this sermon. We will reap if we do not grow weary
in well doing. Or if we begin doing well in the first place. There is some sacrifice
involved in living right before God and there will be some pain if you choose to follow
Him because you'll be going upstream against the tide of this world. But never forget
that the benefits far outweigh the pain of the struggle or the perseverance needed! And
the benefits and what you get for living for God wholeheartedly and obediently is more
than enough!
The scriptural term for this great benefit of “what's in it for me if I live for God” is
“blessed.” Say that with me: “blessed.” Listen to a shotgun load of a few verses:
Job 5:17 "Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves; therefore despise not the
discipline of the Almighty. ESV
Ps 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in
the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the
Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. ESV
Ps 32:1-2 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no deceit. ESV
Ps 119:1-3 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the
Lord! 2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole
heart, 3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! ESV
Ps 144:15 Blessed are the people to whom such blessings fall! Blessed are the people
whose God is the Lord! ESV
Prov 28:14 Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his
heart will fall into calamity. ESV
Jer 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. ESV
John 13:16-17 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor
is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things,
blessed are you if you do them. ESV
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has
stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who
love him. ESV
1 Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be
blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, ESV
1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the
Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. ESV
What do you get for obedience, perseverance, believing, trusting, serving, humility,
confession, insults, righteousness, fear of the Lord, living right as the scriptures define it,
suffering for Godly things and refusing to be a critic or hypocrite? You will be blessed!
This is the keyword of the result of living for God and fearing the God of the Bible, and
of making the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob your God. He promises you to be
blessed. The people of God of old were obsessed with this idea as we read in our text:
Ps 115:11-15 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their
shield. 12 The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of
Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; 13 he will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the small and the great. 14 May the Lord give you increase, you and your
children! 15 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth! ESV
Are you counting? How many times can they get that word in there in just a few short
verses? We trust in the Lord... for He will bless us. He will bless those who fear the
Lord, both small and the great.” May you be blessed by the Lord! They lived as they did
and they served as they served and they hoped as they hoped and they obeyed the
commandments in a desire that they might be blessed by the Lord.
In the New Testament, we have further word and further commandments and further
mandates and further revelation and further instructions. In the New Testament it is not
just the Jews who believe in the God of Jacob and make the God of the Bible their God,
so it is not just Jews who can share in this promise of being blessed of the Lord. The
Word of God – especially the New Testament – can be hard hitting at times, but as James
put it:
James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks
intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24 For he looks at himself and goes away and
at once forgets what he was like. 25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the
law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he
will be blessed in his doing. ESV
Say it with me: “If I hear and obey; if I continue to obey even when its tough and
persevere; I will be blessed in my doing.” This blessing stuff is not just an Old Testament
principle. The book of Romans tells us those who live by faith are truly the children of
Abraham and are the ones that will be blessed as Abraham was blessed. You don't have
to be Jewish or live Jewish to be truly blessed of the Lord. You've got to obey the New
Testament scriptures and live a truly Apostolic lifestyle! And the results are that you will
be called blessed of the Lord! Anybody want to be blessed?
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Those of you who know me well know full well that I just set you up because, of course,
I want to be blessed of the Lord, but in this day and age we have a generation of even
church goers who really don't know what that entails. “Blessed?” What does that mean?
And there are many who weigh the things of the Lord and find them lacking simply
because they are not placing a full measure on the other side of the scale of what it means
when it says that I will be blessed. “It's going to take a lot of changing to live as He
wants... is being 'blessed' worth it?” At its root, disobedience stems from a lack of
understanding and knowledge of the Word of God. “Your word have I hid in my heart
that I might not sin against You.” If people struggle to obey the Word of God in any
given area, it is either because they do not truly know the Word of God well enough to
become a part of them or they think that they know it but they do not full understand or
grasp the truth of what it is saying. There are many people who have no idea what the
Bible means when it says, “you will be blessed” and there are others who think that they
do but have a very lacking view of it.
I've come to set the record straight today – I'm not just here to remind you that living for
God and righteously pays off but to tell you how it pays off! Living according to the
Word of God leads to you being blessed but what does that mean? I'm here to answer
that question. For the Biblical words for blessed in the Old Testament in the Hebrew and
the New Testament in the Greek embody at least a four part meaning. The blessings of
the Lord are very real and when the scriptures declare, “that you may be blessed” it has
four very definite ideals wrapped up in that word. Let's declare these truths!
One root meaning of the Biblical words for blessed is:
To be blessed is to be happy.
That ancient people who feared the Lord in the Old Testament had this written about
them:
Deut 33:29 Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord,
the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come
fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs." ESV
The Hebrew word for happy is Asher and there was a tribe of Israel by this very name in
the middle of the country. Happiness was a key part of living for God. Indeed when the
Queen of Sheba visited Solomon in the days where he was faithfully following the Lord's
proverbs and godly wisdom, she was blown away most of all by Solomon's manner of
approaching God's house and by the fact that all of his servants and workers and the
Hebrews that she encountered were truly happy. When they walked truly in God's
wisdom, they were blessed and part of that was true happiness!
Now let us realize what that does not mean. They were happy but they still had enemies.
They still had tough days. They still had to work. They still paid taxes. They still had to
pray for rain and plow the land and tend the vineyard. They still had sickness and
obstacles in their life. They still lived life on an imperfect earth surrounded by godless
people and yet they were truly happy when they were faithful.
Many people today suffer from a lack of what it means to be truly happy. Happiness is
not defined by circumstances nor is controlled by what you have or don't have.
Happiness as the Bible defines does not come necessarily by everything in your life being
perfect. Rather happiness comes from knowing that despite all of that other, yet you are
right with God and doing His will and He is with you and that there is a greater future for
you. That's what it means to be blessed: to be truly happy because your sins have been
forgiven and you are walking in right standing with God. Blessed or happy is the man
who has found forgiveness. Blessed or happy is the woman who doesn't just hear the
Word of God but does the Word of God. Have you ever read the Beattitudes? Where
Jesus started His greatest sermon with:
Matt 5:3-12 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 "Blessed are the meek,
for they shall inherit the earth. 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall
receive mercy. 8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 "Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 "Blessed are those who
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11
"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil
against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great
in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. ESV
The people were shocked when they heard this for the word that Jesus used for “blessed”
means at its first root, “happy.” And yet the things that Jesus was saying wasn't the things
that the natural man equated with happiness.
Some of you have never been truly happy and its because you are going about it all
wrong. Happiness is not found by playing the lottery or turning your phone off and
ignoring life. Happiness is found by having your driving force something higher in life,
living that life knowing that you are in right standing with God and walking as He
walked, and knowing that you are sacrificing for something eternal. Do you remember
the night that you received the Holy Spirit? Do you remember how happy you were?
People used to say, “they got the joy of the Lord.” Really, they were blessed by the Lord.
Those who were baptized in water and Spirit were truly happy for the first time in their
life. They had their view singularly on Jesus and the Spirit was in control and they had
their sin problem taken care of.
When you went back to some old habits, you lost it because there was distance again
between you and God. When you got your eyes focused back on other people or your
issues there was a lack of joy because you were looking away from Him. Your
knowledge of the Word of God and obedience level wasn't enough to sustain that true
walk very long and that's why you need church and Bible Study and to apply yourself.
But you can reach a place where you are truly happy all of the time. That when you
suffer, you only suffer for having done the right thing and there's actually a joy that
comes with that. That when you sacrifice, you do so because you wanted to sacrifice and
it feels good to do that. Some of the happiest times of my life are not when I got the
income check in the mail, but rather when I sacrificed for a missionary or some righteous
cause and felt empty and broke. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Happiness
comes with giving and not hoarding. If you don't relate to that, you've probably never
lived your life in such a way where you've been truly happy! I don't have to have
everything right in my life to be happy, I just have to have everything right between me
and my God and His Word! When you obey and live it, you are blessed and the result is
true joy!
There is another meaning wrapped up in both the Hebrew and Greek Biblical words for
blessed and that is:
To be blessed is to be fortunate.
There's a saying in the world, “I'd rather be lucky than good.” There's a lot of non truth
in that statement. I'd rather be good as the Bible defines it rather than lucky for when you
live by Biblical mandates things tend to work out for God begins to be at work in all that
you do. There's another saying in the world that is closer to the truth, “People create their
own luck.” There's much truth in that statement.
Some things are just life. The statements of Proverb which give us wisdom to live by are
balanced in the Bible by the book of Job which says that sometimes God's purpose is
better served by delaying the fulfillment and blessing of those promises and also by the
book of Ecclesiastes which teaches us that all who live under the sun will have to
experience life and death and some things are just life. There are such things as odds.
The odds are that if the Lord tarries, you're going to get old and die. The odds are that the
Lord will heal you if you believe in Him and pray for it, but that someday if the Lord
should tarry His coming, there will be a sickness that is unto death. Lazarus, who was
raised by the Lord from the dead on the fourth day, eventually died again of natural
causes and stayed that way. At least until the resurrection! Your flat tire probably had
less to do with the devil and God and more to do with the fact that you were trying to get
another thousand miles out of them or that you ran over a nail. The odds are that you're
going to have rainy days, some flat tires, some trouble in this life. This is no Eden and
that's the point.
And God sometimes delays the reward of righteousness for a time to better serve His
overall plan. That's the lesson of the book of Job. The end of the matter is “Job was
blessed more in the end.” That's the end of the matter but the middle chapters weren't
always pretty. He was blessed in the beginning and he was blessed in the end, but God
delayed the greater blessing to prove to Satan that His children weren't always all about
the favor and to show us that God is sovereign and sometimes when we don't understand
is when God is doing His greatest work.
Having said that – that there are odds to life – yet there is no such thing as luck or random
chance in a child of God's life who is living by the Word of God. It is a definite result of
living in fearful obedience to the scriptures: God will bless you. And that means that you
will be happy even while in an imperfect world but also that you will be fortunate.
Things that happen to you will just seem to work for your favor. And this is not an
accident for God is the One who makes it happen:
Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to
those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. NASU
Oh how I love the New American Standard's translation of this verse! “God causes all
things to work together for good!” This is not a statement that can be made for those
living for themselves and who love themselves more than anything else. This is not a
statement that is true for those who are living for their own ideals. If something good
happens to work out for someone who does not love the Lord with all of their heart and
who doesn't seek His Word first, then know it's just the odds of life. It rains on the just
and the unjust and rain represents blessing not curse in the Bible. Even a stopped watch
is right twice a day. Confucious – the Taoist Chinese philosopher – put the world's
mantra of life in a nutshell when he said, “every dog has its day.” People in the world
have odds and luck in their life.
But not the children of God! There is a Divine figure that watches over their life and
ordains it. “Order my steps in your word” is a cry of the Psalmist who knew that his days
were numbered, both in the sense of how many were left, but also how they played out.
God is the wonderful orderer and numberer who lays out the path of His children
accordingly. Therefore when something good happens and things just seem to work out,
know that God was in it! For this is a statement that can only be made about those who
love the Lord and live for His purpose in their life: God causes all things to work
together for their good!
How can you believe in luck when you have such scriptures as “I'll never leave you nor
forsake you?” How can you believe in fortune when you the Bible declares that He'll
never put more on you than you can bear? How can you give lady luck worship and
credit when the Bible declares that all good things come from God who is the Creator of
Lights and who does not withhold any good thing from His children?
Time for one of the standard seven jokes that I know! You remember the story about the
poor family who trusted God and who had a next-door neighbor who was an atheist?
And one day he heard them family praying on their back porch, “God, we don't have any
groceries and we need some food to eat.” So the atheist said to himself, “I'll show them”
and went to the store and bought four or five bags of groceries and set it on the porch and
knocked on the door and then jumped off the porch and hid in the bushes. The mother
came out saw the bags and begin to rejoice and thank God for hearing their prayer and
the neighbor jumped out and said, “Aha, it wasn't your God at all, it was me who bought
the groceries – I heard your prayer through the window.” And the mother fell to her
knees and lifted her hands and voice and said, “Oh, thank you Jesus, that you can even
use the devil to do your blessing!”
That's the way some people are. They're so cynical. They're like the person who said,
“I'll pay my tithes, but every time I take ten percent and throw it up to God, He sends it
back down.” God works through various agencies and yet you need to realize that if you
are living for God there nothing that is just “fortune.” You are blessed which means you
are fortunate but remember that is how it appears to others. We really know who is
behind the fortune is a great and mighty God who orchestrates our lives and numbers and
orders our steps! He can use even the devil or non-believers to deliver the blessing, but
the blessing came from God! Some of you are so blessed and you don't even know it
because you've been giving other things the credit. Anybody happy and fortunate! That
is God who has done the blessing! That is the meaning of blessed!
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The third meaning wrapped up in this Biblical word is:
To be blessed is to be prosperous.
Everybody hears the word “prosperous” and thinks money but this is more than just
money. The term means “spiritually prosperous.” And sometimes that involves physical
money but it goes deeper than that and we need to grasp the difference. The Psalmist
wrote:
Ps 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands
in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of
the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by
streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all
that he does, he prospers. ESV
Being fortunate is tied to what just happens to you and what comes along in life.
Prosperity is tied to your actions and what you do. “In all that he does, he prospers” is
what is written about the blessed man who fears the Lord. Some people cannot have the
Lord prosper them because they never do anything and that's another Bible Study for
another time. You've got to act for God to prosper. You've got to work. You've got to
obey. You get the picture.
To be spiritually prosperous means that in all that I do, God will ensure that it helps me to
thrive spiritually and not destroy it. There are some people who work hard and make a
lot of money and yet their habits and schedule absolutely destroys their walk with God
and teaches their kids everything but to serve the Lord and seek Him first. That is not
spiritual prosperity but is spiritual disaster! God will supply all of your needs and that
does not mean that He will supply your physical needs at the expense of your spiritual.
Being blessed is that I can pursue dreams and goals and have my physical needs met
while also spiritually prospering. I can work and yet live right with God. I can apply
myself to secular pursuits as needed without being consumed with them where they
become my life's focus. Everything that I do will produce spiritual fruit.
Someone who is blessed by God doesn't just make a lot of money, but wins people to
Apostolic truth through their company and work. Someone who is blessed by God
doesn't just develop a talent, but does so in a way that brings glory to God and brings
attention to His spiritual truths. It doesn't just mean that God allows your family the
things that money can buy, but that even when you perhaps go through a season of testing
financially that you gain and keep the things that money cannot buy.
Money cannot buy a strong marriage relationship built upon solid trust and mutual love.
Money cannot buy children that are sensitive to the things of God and the work of God
and seek Him first. Money cannot buy salvation and being right with God in all that you
do. Money cannot buy character and integrity and the good name that goes with it.
Money cannot buy you a lasting legacy or an eternity to look forward to. Money cannot
elevate your work to impact eternal. But living according to God's principles can provide
all of these things! Fearing the Lord is what brings these things! Those who are blessed ,
in all that they do they shall prosper! If they decide to get married, it will prosper
spiritually. If they decide to have kids, those kids will prosper. If they enter a certain
business, it will prosper for them. If they decide to devote part of their life and time to
this or that, it will prosper and further God's kingdom in their life. Those who do not fear
the Lord and live by scriptural ideals will perhaps do all of those things but it will result
in their struggling to ever get things right with God and just make it harder and harder for
them to escape the struggles of life. I want to be blessed! Whether or not is it is the will
of God to be rich, I want to be prosperous! That is the meaning of the blessed!
And that leads us to the fourth and final meaning wrapped up in this Biblical word.
To be blessed is to be enviable.
Happy, fortunate, prosperous, and all of that will make you live a life that to those on the
outside will seem enviable. I have much to be thankful for and in many ways my life is
enviable. I have a happy home built on trust and a wife that is a joy to come home to. I
married someone more like me than unlike me and she's my best friend! I have kids who
are showing signs of being sensitive to the Lord's Spirit and that are occasionally sweet to
me! God has provided for my talents to be able to be developed to a high level and to be
used for His kingdom. I frequently ask myself when I'm in the company of great men
and women of God who are talented and highly anointed, “what am I doing here?” The
devil did his best to destroy me at birth and yet God's favor towards me and His
prospering me is amazing! He gets the glory! He gets the credit. God has taken care of
our financial needs and God is blessing this church. My wife and I have carefully taken
pictures of every apartment, house, and parsonage that we've lived in so that we can show
people when they see only the blessings of God currently how far God has brought us.
That's the problem with some people: they see the abundant blessings of God and they
automatically assume that God is somehow exclusive and that they could never be as
blessed as the others. My father-in-law gets that all of the time and I just laugh. He came
from the bottom of the pit. He went to church every time the doors were opened when he
had to walk three or four miles one way to get there on shoes that had cardboard in the
bottom of them to block the holes. He gives more to the poor children of his local
community every year at Christmas than he spends on his gifts to us who are his family.
He cooks Thanksgiving meals for hundreds of people the week of Thanksgiving every
year. And people see his nice house and his new church and his new car and they say, “I
wish I was as lucky as He is.” Hogwash, you can be! But it's not lucky, it's blessed and
if you would be faithful to the things of God as he has, you can be blessed as he has! He
paid tithes and supported missionaries when he had to work two jobs in order to do it and
you struggle giving God ten percent of your ample income? Don't criticize his blessing!
He is blessed!
I am blessed. And that is the will of God to make us enviable. It is the will of God for
this church to be the biggest church in town, but it will only be so if this church is willing
to enact the promises of God by sacrifice and righteous living. It is the will of God for
your family to say, “since you've been going to that Apostolic church, things have really
changed for the better.” Some of you are perhaps taking for granted the great change that
God has brought about in your life and have forgotten where God has brought you. It's
not your personality or skill that has you where you are, but the favor and blessing of
God. You are blessed and that's why some of you are enviable.
There are perhaps others who look around and don't know the stories from where many
of you came and are wondering, “Can I be as blessed as them?” You can. But it stems
from doing things God's way. You can be as they are, but you must be blessed! Not
lucky, not fake joy, not work extra hard at work. You will be enviable when you are truly
blessed for that is the meaning of blessed!
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Why does God do it this way? Why does He bless us? So that we can bless Him, of
course! If we would have kept reading in our text in the Psalms we would have come to
this:
Ps 115:15-18 May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth! 16 The
heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.
17 The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. 18 But we
will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord! ESV
To bless Him means to give Him the credit of the source of blessing in your life. That is
the only proper response to the blessing of God, to bless Him in return! He is why I can
be happy because He is my joy! He is the source of my fortune for He causes all things
to work together for the good! He is what causes my hand and actions to prosper for He
ensures spiritual growth and fruitfulness when I seek Him. He is the one who has made
me enviable for it is His Word that tells us that He will make those who obey His Word
the head and not the tale and that all people shall call you blessed! It is He who has done
this, therefore I will bless the Lord!
If you are blessed, then bless Him! And if you have not heretofore been blessed in these
ways, why not start down that road of blessing by blessing Him! Admit your need for
God in your life. Make some changes to your focus so that learning His Word and
obeying it becomes paramount importance. Enact the promises and you too will be truly
happy, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable. For that is the meaning of blessed!